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A new future for cloud computing

NSF awards $20 million to support cloud-computing applications and experiments.
August 25, 2014

Apt, an NSF-funded precursor testbed to CloudLab, is adaptable to many different research domains. (Credit: NSF)

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced two $10 million projects, called “Chameleon” and “CloudLab,” to create cloud-computing testbeds to help the academic research community develop and experiment with novel cloud architectures and applications.

The NSF is especially interested in real-time, safety-critical applications like those used in medical devices, power grids, and transportation systems.

Chameleon

Chameleon will be a… read more

Topics: Computers/Infotech/UI | Internet/Cloud/Telecom

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Can we trust robots? Better question: can robots trust us?

August 24, 2014

https://twitter.com/hitchBOT

Ask HitchBOT, a charismatic robot who just hitchhiked its way across Canada from Halifax, N.S. to Victoria, B.C. — a three-week journey of more than 6,000 km (3728 miles) — accepting 18 rides from total strangers and tweeting its progress to its 35,100 followers.

@HitchBOT used GPS and a 3G cellphone wireless connection feeding to a map with its position. It has… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics

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How lizards regenerate their tails: researchers discover genetic ‘recipe’

Finding may impact future therapies for spinal cord injuries, birth defects, arthritis, other conditions
August 22, 2014

Researchers have discovered the genetic "recipe" for how the green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis) can grow back a lost tail (credit: Hutchins et al./PLoS ONE)

 

Arizona State University scientists have discovered the genetic “recipe” for lizard tail regeneration, which may help develop future therapies for spinal cord injuries.

The team studied the regenerating tail of the green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis), which when caught by a predator, can lose its tail and then grow it back.

The findings were published Aug. 20 in the journal PLOS ONE… read more

Topics: Biotech

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A low-cost water splitter that runs on an ordinary AAA battery

Could allow for true zero-emissions fuel-cell vehicles and save hydrogen producers billions of dollars in electricity costs
August 22, 2014

Stanford scientists have developed a low-cost device that uses an ordinary AAA battery to split water into oxygen and hydrogen gas. Gas bubbles are produced by electrodes made of inexpensive nickel and iron.

A cheap, emissions-free device that uses a 1.5-volt AAA battery to split water into hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis has been developed by scientists at Stanford University.

Unlike other water splitters that use precious-metal catalysts, the electrodes in the Stanford device are made of inexpensive, abundant nickel and iron.

“This is the first time anyone has used non-precious metal catalysts to split water at a voltage… read more

Topics: Electronics | Energy | Nanotech/Materials Science

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Delivery by drone: will it work?

MIT has two computational tricks to help
August 22, 2014

(Credit: Christine Daniloff/MIT - photograph of quadrotor courtesy of the researchers)

MIT researchers have devised computational solutions to reduce the chances that Amazon’s planned delivery drones will crash and burn — along with your stuff.

It’s complicated. Drones have to deal with iffy factors like high winds, low fuel/power level, component failures, and even possible shooters in some locations.

So with Boeing support, the researchers developed two fixes.

  • An algorithm enables a drone to monitor aspects of

… read more

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Graphene rubber bands: flexible, low-cost body sensors

August 21, 2014

(E) Rubber band soaking in toluene. (F) An untreated<br /> rubber band. (G) a band section after soaking in toluene for<br /> 3.5 hours. (H) A graphene-infused band prepared by swelling<br /> in toluene then soaking in an N-methyl-pyrrolidone-water-graphene mixture<br /> for 4 hours followed by washing and drying. (Credit: Conor S. Boland et al./ACS NANO)

Q: What do you get when you add graphene to a rubber band?

A: A flexible sensor sensitive enough for medical use that can be made cheaply.

So say researchers from the University of Surrey and Trinity College Dublin, who have done just that.

Once treated, the rubber bands remain highly pliable, the researchers report, and graphene can be used as a sensor to measure a patient’s… read more

Topics: Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science

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Remote-controlled cyborg moth ‘biobots’ to monitor emergency-response operations

Also a great spy device
August 21, 2014

Credit: Alper Bozkurt)

North Carolina State University researchers have developed methods for electronically manipulating the flight muscles of moths and for monitoring the electrical signals that moths use to control those muscles. The goal: remotely-controlled moths, or “biobots,” for use in emergency response, such as search and rescue operations.

“The idea would be to attach sensors to moths … to create a flexible, aerial sensor network that can identify survivors… read more

Topics: Biotech | Electronics

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Engineering new bone growth with coated tissue scaffolds

Help the body grow new bone to repair injuries or congenital defects
August 21, 2014

Pictured is a scanning electron micrograph of a porous, nanostructured poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) membrane. The membrane is coated with a polyelectrolyte (PEM) multilayer coating that releases growth factors to promote bone repair. (Credit: Nasim Hyder and Nisarg J. Shah)

MIT chemical engineers have devised a new treatment for bone injuries or defects: an implantable tissue scaffold (structure) coated with bone-growth factors that can be released slowly over a few weeks to induce the body to rapidly form new bone that looks and behaves just like the original tissue.

On Monday this week, KurzweilAI described a shape-memory polymer that expands with warm salt water to… read more

Topics: Biotech

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‘Nanojuice’ could help diagnose gastrointestinal illnesses

August 20, 2014

The combination of "nanojuice" and photoacoustic tomography illuminates the intestine of a mouse (credit: Jonathan Lovell)

University at Buffalo researchers are developing a new imaging technique using nanoparticles suspended in liquid to form “nanojuice” that patients would drink to help diagnose irritable bowel syndrome, celiac disease, Crohn’s disease and other gastrointestinal illnesses.

Doctors would strike the nanoparticles, once they reach the small intestine, with a harmless laser light, providing an unparalleled, non-invasive, real-time view of the organ.

Described July 6 in the… read more

Topics: Biotech

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‘Normal’ bacteria vital for keeping intestinal lining intact, preventing disorders

August 20, 2014

Snapshot images show intestines of wild-type and knockout mice injected with dextran (red) and imaged using intravital two-photon microscopy from the intestine lumen. DAPI (blue) illustrates stained cells within the intestinal epithelium. Dye tracking (red) between DAPI (blue) labelled cells indicates a 'leaky' intestinal epithelium. (Credit: Kamal Khanna, Ph.D., University of Connecticut, Farmington)

Bacteria that aid in digestion keep the intestinal lining intact, scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and associates have found.

The findings, reported online in the journal Immunity, could yield new therapies for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and a wide range of other disorders.

The research involved the intestinal microbiome, which contains some 100 trillion bacteria. The role of these microorganisms in… read more

Topics: Biotech

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Do gut bacteria control your mind?

August 20, 2014

gut to mind

Bacteria within you — which outnumber your own cells about 100 times — may be affecting both your cravings and moods to get you to eat what they want, and may be driving you toward obesity.

That’s the conclusion of an article published this week in the journal BioEssays by researchers from UC San Francisco, Arizona State University and University of New Mexico… read more

Topics: Biotech

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Targeted brain stimulation aids stroke recovery in mice

Works even when initiated five days after stroke occurred
August 19, 2014

Optogenetic treatment (Credit: Deisseroth Laboratory)

Stanford University School of Medicine have found that light-driven stimulation technology called optogenetics enhances stroke* recovery in mice — even when initiated five days after stroke occurred.

The mice showed significantly greater recovery in motor ability than mice that had experienced strokes but whose brains weren’t stimulated.

“In this study, we found that direct stimulation of a particular set of nerve cells in the brain —… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity

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Artificial cells mimic natural protein synthesis

Another barrier between artificial and natural falls
August 19, 2014

Fluorescent image of DNA (white squares) patterned in circular compartments connected by capillary tubes to the cell-free extract flowing in the channel at bottom. Compartments are 100 micrometers in diameter. (Credit: Weizmann Institute)

Weizmann Institute scientists have created an artificial network-like cell system that is capable of reproducing the dynamic behavior of protein synthesis.

This achievement could help gain a deeper understanding of basic biological processes and pave the way toward controlling the synthesis of naturally occurring and synthetic proteins for many uses.

The system was designed by PhD students Eyal Karzbrun and Alexandra Tayar in the lab of… read more

Topics: Biotech

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Neuromorphic ‘atomic-switch’ networks function like synapses in the brain

August 19, 2014

atomic-switch network

Researchers in the U.S. and Japan have developed a self-assembled neuromorphic (brain-like) device comprising more than a billion interconnected “atomic-switch” inorganic synapses embedded in a complex network of silver nanowires.

The researchers are located at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA) at the National Institute for… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Electronics

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Scientists able to zoom in and out as the brain processes sound

Mouse research could lead to better treatments for hearing loss
August 18, 2014

A two-photon microscopy image showing a calcium sensor (green), the nuclei of neurons (red) and supporting cells called astrocytes (magenta). (Credit: John Issa/Johns Hopkins Medicine)

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have mapped a new technique for watching auditory processing in the brains of mice as brain cells lit up when the mice listened to tones and one another’s calls.

The results, which represent a step toward better understanding how our own brains process language, appear online July 31 in the journal Neuron.

In the past, researchers often studied sound processing… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

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